Where there's smoke...

I have not had occasion to mention it heretofore, but I sometimes smoke a pipe. Cigars, on rare occasions, but a pipe more often. It is relaxing, and frankly very few people object to the smell of pipe smoke. (Although, young lady, telling a middle aged man that "Oooh, that reminds me of my grandfather!" is probably better left unsaid.)

Anyway, following a link from Tamara at View From The Porch over to Aubrey Turner's* place, I learned that Him Imperial Majesty has signed a regulation to up the taxes on tobacco by

• The tax rate on large cigars will now be 52.4% (with a cap of $0.40 for individual cigars)
• The federal tax on cigarettes goes from $0.39 to $1.00 per pack
• The tax on pipe tobacco goes from $1.0969 per pound to $2.8126 per pound
• The tax on roll-your-own cigarette tobacco goes from $1.0969 per pound to $24.62 per pound!

Now, one of the things I learned during my brief tenure with a local tobacconist was the only health hazard the Surgeon General has identified with pipe smoking and cigars is a slight (as in, statistically insignificant) increase in the risk of oral cancer. This assumes that the smoker does not inhale--which most pipe and cigar smokers do not. (Unless they are trying to quit cigarettes...)

Lung cancer was practically unknown until the 1930s; cigarettes were almost non-existent until World War I! And, cigarettes are made with the lowest grades of tobacco, and, in order to maintain combustion, the papers have to be treated with chemicals... (Which is why arsonists use cigarettes, not cigars. Or meerschaums.)

As for second hand smoke, well, the World Health Organization conducted The Mother of All Second Hand Smoke Studies several years ago. Unless you read Pipes And Tobacco or maybe Cigar Aficionado you probably never heard about it because they couldn't even prove anything to the standards of the UN... Empirically, one has to wonder, if the only health hazard from pipes and cigars is an exceedingly slight increase in the risk of oral cancer, then how is being around smokers all that risky? (Note that we are now hearing the sheeple bleat about third hand smoke!)

"But, Drang, I don't smoke! Why are you bothering me with this?!"


WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO THE CHOSEN ONE MIGHT TRY TO TAX OUT OF EXISTENCE?

And how many Americans are going to lose their jobs because of it?


*Source of the Coinage of the Day:

Obamanfreude - 1. taking pleasure from the discomfort of Obama supporters as they come to realize that The Chosen One™ is just another Chicago politician. 2. taking pleasure from the misfortunes of an Obama supporter as he or she is adversely affected by the policies of their Dear Leader.